University of Michigan or Carnegie Mellon

College Majors Music Major
1

<p>Hi there,</p>

<p>I am a high school senior and am making my college decision. </p>

<p>For musical theatre, I have been admitted to the following:</p>

<ol>
<li>UCLA</li>
<li>Boston Conservatory</li>
<li>NYU (Waitlisted)</li>
</ol>

<p>For Vocal Performance, I have been admitted to the following:</p>

<ol>
<li>University of Michigan</li>
<li>Boston Conservatory</li>
<li>USC</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon</li>
<li>Berklee</li>
</ol>

<p>I think I have narrowed it down to Carnegie Mellon and University of Michigan. The thing is, I still would like musical theatre to be a possible option as a career later on, not that I don't want to pursue opera. Carnegie Mellon offers a BFA in voice, while UMich offers a BM. </p>

<p>Does anybody know the difference between the two programs?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>It is the same degree, my d applied to Carnegie Mellon for voice and I remember that question being asked at the q & a here in NY. Both CMU and Michigan are good programs, although at CMU highly doubtful you would be able to audition for any musical theater performances, unsure about Michigan. My d was in somewhat of a similar situation but given her voice type as a coloratura soprano along with her teacher recommendation she felt she would be better off with classically training as you can do musical theater with a classically trained voice but you cannot sing opera with a musical theater trained voice. Kristin Chenoweth, Audra McDonald, Kelly O’Hara, Rebecca Luker are all classically trained singers.</p>

3

<p>Great point! Where were you daughters choices?</p>

4

<p>ManInChair, I am adding your VP acceptances over at the <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1260441-master-list-music-school-acceptances-fall-2012-a-61.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1260441-master-list-music-school-acceptances-fall-2012-a-61.html&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Please let us know your final choice, so we can add it to the <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1260860-master-list-final-decisions-fall-2012-a-4.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1260860-master-list-final-decisions-fall-2012-a-4.html&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>ManInChair, don’t rule out CMU because you won’t be able to get into the productions put on by the MT majors. They have a theater group called Scotch’n’Soda which is open to all students except for the theater majors. They produce incredible productions. As a matter of fact, back in 1967 Stephen Schwartz (who was a student at the time) wrote and directed a new play called “Pippen” there which as we all know ended up opening on Broadway just a few years later! My DH and my older S both graduated from CMU (Engineering & Bio) so I’ve seen many shows over the last 30 years and you would not know that they weren’t being put on by non majors. </p>

<p>And - someone correct me if I’m wrong (which I’ve been known to be on occasion :slight_smile: )- but I believe that there is some collaboration on one show a year between the MT’s and the Vocal Performance students. Either way, I know they do perform two full opera’s each year.</p>

<p>Both schools are very different (my D was at UMich’s Mpulse VAI program last summer and loved it there) but you can’t go wrong with either. From personal experience though my S loved his 4 years in Pittsburgh at CMU.</p>